April 21st 2023

Chapter 111
We Color the Night

Though it had been several years since either of them could say that their birthdays had felt to them like what birthdays felt for their daughters, Maya and Lucas very much remembered what some of those days had been like when they'd been growing up. They hadn't always felt the same for one as they'd done for the other, this mostly due to how they'd grown up, in Texas and New York, their family situations as they'd been, but they could usually agree on one thing: When their 'real' birthdays and the weekend aligned, that was the best. It wasn't as though they couldn't celebrate just fine if they had their birthdays during the week and a party over the weekend, but when it could all happen on the actual day… That was definitely better. In that spirit, this had been taken into account when they had plotted what this October 31st would be like. They had asked their birthday girl what she wanted for her day this year, aside from what she could always expect, like the games and the costume contest outside the house, dinner with her family…

"Can we have the groups out here?" Marianne had asked after a very reasonable period of consideration (three minutes) once they'd put the question to her.

"The afterschool groups?" Lucas had asked, and she'd nodded. "All four of them?" he'd asked, and she'd nodded again. "That's… that's a lot of kids," he'd had to point out, but she hadn't thought it to be too much of an issue. They'd asked her what she wanted, and she'd told them. The rest was up to them to figure out if it would work or not.

It had demanded a lot of thinking… and a lot of planning, most of it to ensure that they wouldn't get in trouble for any of it… but in the end they were in the clear, so they got it done. It meant that the games had to go up earlier, on both sides of the road, and they had to rethink a few parts, minding that they would start earlier in the day, and that they'd have many more kids running around, including parents and younger siblings tagging along. Luckily for everyone, it was just the kind of challenge that they were eager to fulfill.

They'd compromised in the effort by breaking it up rather than to ever expect to host that many people outside their home and the Hart-Lanes' home at once. Each group had been assigned a different time window, and while they would never go and tell anyone that it was time to leave, they counted on the fact that the other families would have things to do on that day, same as anyone else would, so sooner or later they would go on their way, possibly returning for a second tour over the evening, after a bit of trick or treating.

The whole thing had been as wonderful as they would have hoped for it to be, especially for their birthday girl, as it had been her idea to begin with. She had a wonderful time, and it only carried on, even as the games emptied out, because now her family was coming along, grandparents and great grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins… She was overjoyed for having the likes of Betsy be part of her birthday this time around, a sentiment that was fully returned by the recent Austin transplant.

Of course, with all the highs, there would be a low, too, one they had foreseen long ago, as long back as… February. It still felt unimaginable to think that it had been eight whole months since they'd lost her Granny Mel, and yet it was, and on this day, just as others of their family had had to feel it between then and now, it was Marianne's turn to miss the woman on her birthday, and she very much felt it. They knew it from the moment when she'd come down, giving her customary greeting to the photo with her sisters but taking a few more beats than she usually did. The peak came, no doubt, when her Pappy Tom arrived and presented her with two gifts. One of them was from him and was revealed to be a whole box full of books she'd asked for, the better to deepen her growing love for local history and genealogy especially. The other gift was much smaller but, the way he presented it to her, it was clear to anyone that it came second for a reason. Even as it was placed into her hands, Marianne looked as though her heart had started to beat faster.

The gift was not from her late grandmother herself. As forward thinking as Melinda Friar could be, she had not gotten that far ahead before her untimely passing. But then as time had passed and allowed him to feel capable, Thomas Friar had started to look to the future, especially where the things he'd been left with could be given a far better purpose than to remind him of his loss: They could help her memory live on for his granddaughters, for his son and his daughter-in-law, for his brothers-in-law and their children. That day, they allowed him to do that for their first ever granddaughter as she celebrated her ninth birthday. In the box once she'd unwrapped it, Marianne would discover a pair of earrings, and not just any pair. These had been her favorites of her grandmother's for as long as she could remember. They would dangle from her ears, and chime merrily when she'd move her head, and they were just lovely. When she saw them, Marianne began to cry, and her grandfather pulled her into a tightly comforting hug.

The tears continued to sit, shining in her eyes, until after her mother had gone and pulled her long hair into a high and long ponytail, the better to keep it away from the sides of her face, where she helped her slip on the tinkling earrings. Once they were on, once she could see them move with her, hear them go as they had done as long as she'd lived and before, the crying started to recede, and Maya hugged her from behind, told her how nice they looked on her and asked her if she was happy for her gift. Marianne nodded, smiled when the earrings jingled.

Would they clash with her costume, the one she'd wear that day instead of her school one? Oh, absolutely. But she resisted taking them off at first, even as she started to get ready, as she was transformed from an innocent looking child to a nightmare on two feet. She didn't agree to take them off until the very last moment and, when she did, she made absolutely sure that they were returned to their box and that this box was placed somewhere safe. They could tell that those earrings would never be far from her head so long as she could help it from here on out.

With the coming of their regular Hallowannie crowd outside the house, some of them returning from earlier, they also had several of Maya's students past and present. Those present ones, as she'd figured they might, showed up not in the guises they'd had on Friday at school but in whole other costumes, these with only one purpose, this one being to have some fun on this day of spooks. Part of that fun, along with games, and candy, and contests, was to make sure and wish their teacher's daughter a happy birthday when they saw her. It was always well known in Maya's class that one of her daughters had been born on October 31st, though the exact circumstances of her birth were generally kept for a select few. Being the consummate queen of Hallowannie that she was, Marianne would thank them for the wishes by means of her character for the night. Maya had several photos of her students coming away just a bit spooked from the encounter and they were one of her favorite things from the evening.

"See, you're not saying it, but I can almost hear you thinking about it," Maya approached Lucas after she'd gone and helped get the little sisters off to bed, this year in the care of Stella Buckley.

"Thinking about…" Lucas asked, not following. Maya smiled and leaned to whisper at his ear.

"Teenage drama…" He smirked. "Wouldn't be Halloween at our house without it, right?"

"Seeing as it tends to happen whether we like it or not…" he had to agree. "I think you might be right on time for it, too."

"Oh?" Maya blinked and looked around. He pointed her in the right direction, and she followed his finger.

She'd already seen her little sister out and about that evening. Haley was making the rounds in the games along with classmate and lifelong friend Hunter Matthews and more recent friend Rafael Cruz. Rafa was one year above her and Hunter, but then they all knew each other from outside of school, so it hardly mattered. What was mattering a lot more at this point in time was the person who wasn't part of this group and who had shown up at the Friar games at some point while Maya had been inside the house, from the look of things. Madelyn Carter had arrived, along with another girl that Maya did not recognize, and she looked nervous… especially as she and her friend were about to cross paths with Haley and the boys.

Whatever had been going on between the two best friends – former best friends, to hear Haley go on about it – since before school had started, nothing had changed, or at least nothing had gotten better. Seeing them now, it had only gotten worse. Haley definitely saw Madelyn, but she barely showed it, instead directing Hunter and Rafa to follow her off to the maze. Madelyn looked sad at first, but then she frowned and sped up to follow after them.

"Uh oh," Maya and Lucas spoke at the same time.

They were too far away to hear exactly what was being said, but not so far that they couldn't catch the sound of the girls' voices through the noise of the people around them. It was enough that the people around them stopped talking and instead turned to look at them, the effect spreading further and further, like ripples in a pond, even as Maya tried to get to them and deal with the situation, Lucas on her heels. Wherever they were, they could just guess that Nellie, Gracie, and MJ would all be doing the same thing.

They only made it near enough in time to see Madelyn swing out her arm, but they knew that was a bad move. It wasn't even as though Haley would have done it on purpose, only on reflex, thanks to her training, but she saw the fist coming for her, blocked it and sent Madelyn stumbling away, tripping over her feet and falling to the ground. As soon as she realized what she'd done, she reached down to try and help her up, but Madelyn pushed her away.

"Just leave me alone! Don't touch me!" she shouted. Haley was frozen, and she watched – along with everyone else to witness the scene – as Madelyn's friend helped her up and sped her away from the house without another word. After a few moments, Haley spun around, realizing that everyone was looking at her. She blinked, breathing hard, and she ran the other way, cutting through the crowd and heading inside her sister's house.

There was nothing to be done but try and deal with what they had. Lucas would try and get the night going again outside while Maya moved at once to go find her sister, the other Hunters right by her side.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners